Alexei Pokushevsky lags… one round behind

His rookie season was promising, especially in the second half after the break for the 2021 All-Star Game. Alexei Pokushevsky entered the NBA unprepared, diving deep and swimming, recording 8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a block every 24.2 minutes in the regular season but his sophomore year in the major leagues is not world famous. Anything else, as the 20-year-old Serbian forward has made several regressions, lost his role in the Thunder rotation and doesn’t even stand out in the G-League with Oklahoma City Blue.

Suffering from Covid-19 in late 2021, Pokuszewski was recently relegated to the league and has just 7.2 points in six games (34.6% on shots overall, 26.3% on 3-points), 6.8 rebounds, 2 .8 assists, 1.2 blocks but also 3 errors every 25.8 minutes. He had 15 points in the first game of the season against the Austin Spurs and another 10 against the Santa Cruz Warriors and from there he rose to absolute mediocre while even breaking out of the top 5 making him look like a Formula 1 driver , who “ate” around his leading athletes.

Pokushevski decided not to take part in the preparation of the Serbian national team last summer in order to work individually, he didn’t play with the Thunder in the Summer League and now he has a long way to go to play an important role in the Thunder again to find. The Oklahoma City team supports a lot of young people, in third place is Lou Dort, Kendrich Williams (will most likely be awarded before the February 10th trade deadline), Aaron Wiggins, in fourth place is Darius Beasley and currently at least he doesn’t this includes the player he picked 17th in the draft last year.

GM Sam Presti has already exercised the option in Pokushevsky’s contract to stay in Oklahoma City in 2022-23 for $3,261,480, with the team having the right to extend his stay an additional year instead of $5,009,633 extend. The good thing about the 20-year-old Serb is that he is in an organization that supports young people while his money is secured until the summer of 2023. The bad thing is that Presti has amassed a truckload of draft picks, which gives him the comfort of trying people out without having to insist on them for many years. Because of this, Pokushevsky needs to take steps forward to make up some of the lost ground of the past few months.

In the 2021-22 season, Pokushevski has 4.6 points (46.2% on two points, 23% on three points), 4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per 15.1 minutes in 36 regular-season games, with just two Appearances in 14th place in the Thunder’s Starting Five. Western Region position with a record of 14-33.